Tech

2012's Biggest Winners and Losers

The end is near. I mean the end of 2012, not the world, as dunderheaded Mayan-acolytes believe. Even without looming global annihilation, it’s been the most manic of annums, with extreme highs and heartbreaking lows.

It can be difficult, at times like these, to identify winners and losers. No doubt there are people, companies and products either side of the fortune spectrum, and we've been witness to every impressive success and soul-crushing defeat. Those successes certainly fall in the "winners" category, while the defeated? Well, they definitely lost, though some might hesitate to call them “Losers,” per se. Remember, we all have our good times and our bad.

With that in mind, I hope we can cheer 2012’s winners and empathize with the year’s losers.

Losers: AirTime and Sean Parker

Remember AirTime? The real-time Facebook-driven video chat and sharing platform is still alive, but I challenge you to find a room full of people who know or care. The product was vexed from the start. If I close my eyes, I can replay the entire bizarre launch event.

Napster co-founder and former Facebook president Sean Parker amassed an impressive collection of celebrities (Jim Carrey, Julia Louise-Dreyfus, Ed Helms, Joel McHale and others) to join him onstage as he unveiled and then demonstrated the new services. It was like the clean version of Chatroulette, but with video sharing and celebrities.

The demo was a disaster, more fail than function. In fact, the less said about it, the better.

For now, AirTime is a high-profile blip from 2012, which will likely be forgotten in 2013.

Winner: NASA Mars Curiosity Team

Image courtesy of NASA

What an astounding feat. NASA guided a giant, working laboratory to a soft landing on a distant planet in one of the most complicated and awe-inspiring series of maneuvers ever witnessed.

If you didn’t think it was a big deal, all you had to do is watch the jubilant Curiosity team as Curiosity Rover safely touched down on the dusty Mars surface. The seven minutes of terror lived up to its name, and NASA scored a clear win in 2012, one that has continued to pay dividends ever since the landing (The pictures!The discoveries!).

Sure, they punked us once with a “big discovery” that was really just some big misunderstanding, but that’s a tiny blot on an otherwise unblemished mission. The year 2013 should continue the good Curiosity times.

Winner: Big Bird

Seven-foot-tall birds always stand out, but do they remain relevant? Big Bird, the giant puppet (for the kids reading: I’m kidding! He’s a real bird), the bird that’s roamed the streets and alleys of Children’s Workshop’s Sesame Street for more than four decades became the center of political and social discussion one night in October, when Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney said this during his first debate with President Barack Obama: “I like PBS. I love Big Bird. But I am not going to keep spending money on things [we have] to borrow money from China to pay for.”

Within minutes people were tweeting about Big Bird with concerns that Romney wanted to kill Sesame Street. More specifically, that Big Bird’s…er...goose was cooked. It’s hard to say how much of an impact it had on the election, but for a few days, at least, everyone was talking about Big Bird, creating memes with his likeness and using him in political campaign videos. Big Bird even made an appearance on Saturday Night Live.

Exciting times for the world’s biggest and most gentle of birds. It was a win for our feathered friend and maybe for public broadcasting, too.

That last AMA was a true watershed moment for “The Front Page of the Internet.” People who had never heard of the Internet news site were introduced to Reddit’s unique style and culture. “AMA,” they saw, wasn’t lip service: Members really could ask anything — not that they’d always got an answer. Obama’s Q&A with random people seemed pretty well vetted. For his part, Obama gave lengthy, insightful answers. Some were about politics and world affairs and a few, like “Jordan — I'm a Bulls guy,” by way of answering with his favorite basketball player, were casual and real.

This and other landmark AMAs put Reddit on the map for a far broader audience than ever before. I can only imagine the AMAs we’ll see next year.

Loser: Color

Image courtesy of Color

I was one of the very first to try this must-have social, “near you” iPhone app. I was disappointed on day one, and the service, which started as a photo sharing service and pivoted to video sharing, then pivoted to Facebook integration and then pivoted out of existence, never found its way.

The service also burned through $41 million. That’s a loss no matter how you slice it.

Winner: Rovio

Image courtesy of Rovio

Our love affair with Angry Birds is, it seems, far from over. In 2012, the franchise extended its brand into Angry Birds Space, Bad Piggies, board games, a movie in 2016 and, most notably, Angry Birds Star Wars. It’s true, Amazing Alex is not the runaway hit Rovio hoped for (Alex has around 1,700 ratings in the App Store, while the Star Wars edition earned almost 14,000). But it’s a good game that did not embarrass the brand. Angry Birds Star Wars, on the other hand, is an all-out win, expertly polished and a real hoot for fans and SW neophytes.

The Birds are winning, the Pigs are winning and, most importantly, mobile gamers are winning. Oink!

Winner: Instagram

Instagram scored the biggest win of all when Facebook snapped it up for $1 billion in April. That is pure, unadulterated “win.” Facebook pretty much kept its hands off the super popular photo-sharing platform for much of 2012, and Instagram used the time to launch a huge software update that improved Instagram in myriad ways.

When Hurricane Sandy hit, Instagram was there to help millions and millions of people share stunning images that told the tale of the storm from the ground. It was all win, until…

Loser: Instagram

Instagram was the most popular photo-sharing app on the iPhone, also a favorite to Twitter users like me. Too bad 2012 saw the Twitter/Instagram friendship sour. Twitter made it harder for people to find Twitter users on Instagram, and Instagram pulled back from the micro-blogging service. Now you can’t even see Instagram photos inside your Twitter stream — you have to click a link.

Things got even worse when Instagram’s co-founder Kevin Systrom started acting a bit too much like his new parents, spouting bizarre new terms of service polices that read like a punch in the face to every Instagram user — some of whom abandoned ship.

2013 will be an important year for Instagram. Can it regain its momentum, or will Facebook’s Borg-like influence ruin it for good?

Losers: iPad 3 Buyers

The iPad Retina or iPad 3 is an excellent tablet. In fact, Apple has yet to build a tablet I didn’t like (I like the iPad Mini, too, just wish it was way cheaper and had as much power as competing seven-inch tablets). Still, those who bought an iPad Retina in March could not have been too happy to see a more powerful replacement arrive barely eight months later. Those who wait on long, day-of-launch lines to buy the latest Apple doo-dad felt a bit punked by the surprise announcement.

Winner: Microsoft

Image by Mashable

Yes, calling Microsoft a winner in 2012 might be overstating the case. It’s still not even close to dominant in either the tablet or mobile phone race, but it is accomplished.

Next year will prove an interesting time for Microsoft. It has to convince consumers that they can learn Windows 8’s somewhat schizophrenic interface and it must convince Android and iPhone users to actually switch to the Windows Phone 8 platform.

Winner: Nate Silver, Data, Science

Paul Zimmerman/Getty Images

The New York Times blogger correctly predicted the presidential election results in 50 out of 50 states, and he did it with data and math. I think it’s a fair bet that people who wanted to ignore Silver's stunning performance in the 2008 presidential election will be beating a path to his door in 2016. It’s a win for Mr. Silver and a win for everyone who believes in the power of data and clear-headed analysis.

Loser: Violentacrez

Image courtesy of CNN

Michael Brutsch, the former Reddit Mod (or moderator) was forced into the light by Gawker’s Adrian Chen earlier this year. He’s just an average guy with a wife, family and job. Well, strike that last part.

Brutsch, previously known as Violentacrez on Reddit, lost his job when Chen revealed that Brutsch moderated some of Reddit’s darkest corners. He worked hard to ride the line between illegal and simply objectionable and outrageous. All in all, though, it was content that would make most people blush or become very, very angry.

Chen made it impossible for Brutsch to hide behind the cloak of anonymity. The guy lost his job and his Reddit standing.

Winner: Apple

Image courtesy of Apple

If you’re watching Apple’s stock price movement every day and thinking it means something, you’re wrong. Apple started the year at $400 and is still over $500.

It makes more sense to focus on the company’s extraordinary success, even in the face of public backlash. iOS 6 included the much derided Apple Maps, but no one is trading in iPhone for Android devices as a result. In fact, Apple’s hardware sales are still, by every measure, robust.

Last but not least, Tim Cook has had an interesting year, but he’s clearly grown into his role as CEO of one of the world’s most innovative companies.

Loser: Digg

Image by Mashable

Digg was Reddit before Reddit was Reddit. It was the homepage of the Internet for millions of online denizens, offering a sprawling collection of news, tech, oddities and humor. Best of all, the users decided what was good (Diggable) and what was not (burying).

Like all good systems, though, it eventually became corrupted by a small cadre of over-influential users. Digg tried to control them and the whole thing spun out of control, until this year. In 2012, Digg pivoted to, well, something that looks like a botched Pinterest knockoff. The design is simple, and Digg numbers are pretty darn low. Plus, Digg is no longer part of the public/Internet discourse. It’s simply not relevant. Just ask Digg founder Kevin Rose, who long ago left the company in his rearview mirror to work for Google.

Other Winners:

Google: Android is an unqualified success. 2013 will see more consolidation and control, and the app side will only become stronger, which should make Apple nervous.

Samsung: Kicking butt and taking names in phones (Galaxys are big but awesome).

President Barack Obama: Well, duh.

Other Losers:

Mitt Romney: Sorry, big guy.

Zynga: The bloom is off the rose for social gaming on Facebook and even on mobile phones (when was the last time you played Draw Something?). Let’s see if it can recover in 2013.

Groupon: Andrew Mason says things are all right, but the public and stock holders still aren’t buying it.

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is a leading source for news, information and resources for the Connected Generation. Mashable reports on the importance of digital innovation and how it empowers and inspires people around the world. Mashable's record 42 million unique visitors worldwide and 21 million social media followers are one of the most influential and engaged online communities. Founded in 2005, Mashable is headquartered in New York City with an office in San Francisco.